Environment and Sustainability: Circular Economy, Green Business and Socio-Economy

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will explore the interdependence among environmental sustainability, economic transformation, and social equity through the lenses of the circular economy, green business, and the socio-economic transition toward sustainable development. Its primary aim is to bridge theoretical insights and empirical evidence that explain how circularity and sustainability-driven innovation can reshape production systems, consumer behavior, and institutional governance in both developed and emerging economies. This issue’s scope extends across disciplines—economics, environmental science, management, and public policy—aiming to foster integrative analyses of how resource efficiency, digitalization, and social inclusion interact within sustainable economic systems. The purpose of this issue is to advance scholarly and practical understanding of how businesses, policymakers, and communities can co-create resilient ecosystems that minimize waste, enhance competitiveness, and promote long-term social welfare.

The Special Issue will situate itself within a rapidly expanding body of literature on sustainability transitions, extending the debate from ecological efficiency to socio-economic resilience. While previous research has emphasized the environmental and industrial dimensions of the circular economy, this issue supplements the existing literature by emphasizing systemic integration—connecting green business strategies, behavioral economics, and social innovation frameworks to measurable outcomes in sustainability performance. It also incorporates the governance and policy perspective, exploring laws, standards, and tools for monitoring sustainability progress, thus contributing to the quantification and operationalization of sustainability principles.

By aligning environmental objectives with socio-economic imperatives, this issue will support Sustainability’s mission to define, measure, and monitor sustainability through interdisciplinary and policy-relevant approaches. Ultimately, it seeks to provide both conceptual frameworks and applied methodologies that can guide policymakers, enterprises, and researchers in designing inclusive, circular, and regenerative socio-economic models for the 21st century.

Dr. Dumitru Alexandru Bodislav
Dr. Raluca Iuliana Georgescu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.